MOD Lyneham

Royal Air Force Lyneham otherwise known as RAF Lyneham (IATA: LYE, ICAO: EGDL) was a Royal Air Force station located 6.3 miles (10.1 km) northeast of Chippenham, Wiltshire, and 10.3 miles (16.6 km) southwest of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The station was the home of all the Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Royal Air Force (RAF) before they were relocated to RAF Brize Norton. RAF Lyneham was the Royal Air Force's principal transport hub, operating the modern Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules, and the ageing, but very adaptable, Lockheed C-130K Hercules. The airfield was designated as a Master Diversion Airfield: it was one of the primary airfields to which aircraft could divert in the eventuality of their home bases being closed due to weather, or other unforeseen events such as aircraft crashes. The airfield became renowned for being the "gateway" between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan; the station was also where repatriation of British personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan took place. The bodies were transported through the nearby town of Royal Wootton Bassett, with crowds lining the streets to pay tribute to the fallen. The station closed on 31 December 2012 with the majority of its personnel and other assets having moved to RAF Brize Norton. On 31 May 2011, a parade was held, attended by the Princess Royal, to mark the departure of the squadrons. The final Hercules left Lyneham on 1 July 2011. Daily flying operations ceased on 30 September 2011.The site is now known as Ministry of Defence Lyneham (or MoD Lyneham) and is home to the Defence School of Electro-Mechanical Engineering (DSEME).

Bradenstoke is a village in Wiltshire, England, lying to the north of the former RAF Lyneham airbase and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of Lyneham. Originally lying within Braydon Forest, the "stoke" means "settlement".Largely consisting of a long and narrow main street, the village has a church, one chapel (it used to have two chapels but the Methodist Chapel has been converted into a dwelling), a village hall and a pub. The Post Office closed in 2008.

Bradenstoke Priory was a medieval priory of Augustinian canons regular in the village of Bradenstoke, Wiltshire, England. Its site, in the north of the county about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) west of Lyneham, is on a ridge above the south side of Dauntsey Vale. In the 1930s the property was purchased by William Randolph Hearst and some of its structures were used by him for the renovation of St Donat's Castle near Llantwit Major, Wales.

New Zealand is a hamlet in the civil parish of Hilmarton in Wiltshire, England. Nearby villages are Goatacre, Hilmarton and Lyneham; the nearest town is Calne, approximately 4 miles (6 km) to the southwest. Today the hamlet is close to the southern boundary of MoD Lyneham, which was opened as RAF Lyneham in 1940.

The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is a registered charity no. 299595, and a waterway society based in Wiltshire, England, concerned with the restoration of the Wilts & Berks Canal. The Trust is the successor to the Wilts & Berks Canal Amenity Group (formed in 1977) and a founder member of the Wiltshire, Swindon & Oxfordshire Canal Partnership, which embraces the Trust, the local authorities for the areas through which the route of the canal passes, statutory bodies, and other interested parties. The Trust's headquarters are at Dauntsey Lock, adjacent to the canal between Chippenham and Royal Wootton Bassett.

Dauntsey railway station served the village of Dauntsey, Wiltshire from 1868 to 1965. It was situated on the Great Western Main Line which runs from London to Bristol. The station site is a mile and a half south of Dauntsey village and is near Dauntsey Lock which suggests that the station was important to the Wilts & Berks Canal. Dauntsey was a small station with three platforms, two of which are similar in length to the platforms at Corsham which is further down the line between Chippenham and Bath. The station had a main building with a canopy on the up platform (towards London) and the platform on the opposite side had a small brick shelter, also with a canopy. Dauntsey station became the junction for the branch line to Malmesbury in 1877. The up platform was extended west of the road bridge with a bay platform to accommodate trains on the branch line. When the GWR built the South Wales Main Line in 1903 it passed a few miles north of Dauntsey. In 1933 the connection between the Malmesbury branch and the main line was moved to Little Somerford on the newer main line, and the redundant section between Dauntsey and Somerford became a siding. The canopy used for the branch line platform was moved to Yatton station where it can still be seen today. Most of Dauntsey station was demolished in 1977 although the station house and the up platform remain.

The REME Museum is within the MoD Lyneham site, in Lyneham, Wiltshire, England, about 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Swindon. The museum holds collections of technological and historical artefacts associated with the work of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), the corps of the British Army responsible for the maintenance, servicing and inspection of electrical and mechanical equipment.

Goatacre is a village in the English county of Wiltshire, about 4 miles (6 km) north of Calne and 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Lyneham on the A3102 road. It is in the parish of Hilmarton and the closest major town is Swindon, some 12 miles (19 km) to the northeast. The hamlet of New Zealand is nearby, to the northwest.

Spirthill is a hamlet in the civil parish of Bremhill in Wiltshire, England, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the south of Lyneham. It is on top of a hill with views over the Avon valley and the towns of Calne and Chippenham can be seen from some points. It is a quiet community of farmland and residential housing spread out along a narrow and unlit lane. There are 19 homes in the hamlet, including five farms with livestock or arable crops. The area was once part of the nearby Bowood Estate and can trace historical links back to the 16th Century. It is believed there were farms in the area around the Domesday time or before. There are no significant industrial activities in the hamlet and development is strictly controlled by local policy. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel dated 1825 was built at Spirthill but is no longer in use.The hamlet is served by Wessex Water; Scottish and Southern Electricity are responsible for the overhead mains power supplies. The BT exchange at Hilmarton serves the hamlet via overhead telephone lines. There is no sewerage service or mains gas supply to the hamlet. There are no shops, pub or telephone box, but there is a post box. There are no regular public transport services, the nearest bus stops being on the A3102 at the foot of Snow Hill which is about 2 miles away.

Lyneham is a large village in north Wiltshire, England, within the civil parish of Lyneham and Bradenstoke, and situated 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Royal Wootton Bassett, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) north of Calne and 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Swindon. The village is on the A3102 road between Calne and Wootton Bassett. The part of Lyneham village close to the parish church is known as Church End. The civil parish includes the village of Bradenstoke and the hamlets of Preston and The Banks.

The Dauntsey Vale is a geographical feature in the north of the English county of Wiltshire. It is characterised by a wide, flat, clay floodplain of the upper reaches of the Bristol Avon river, which divides the Cotswolds to the west from the chalk downland of east and south Wiltshire. It is triangular in shape with its north edge running from the town of Royal Wootton Bassett in the east to Malmesbury in the west. This prominent north ridge is the setting for the village of Brinkworth, which at five miles long, claims to be the longest village in England. The western edge of the Vale is the edge of the Cotswolds, running from Malmesbury to Chippenham in the south. This edge is less pronounced than the classic escarpment which forms the western edge of the Cotswolds. It is characterised by a gradual drop in level, but more in the different building materials of the villages. For instance, Stanton St Quintin above the Vale has a distinct Cotswolds feel with the typical honey-coloured building stone and roof slates, while villages just a few miles away to the east like Christian Malford and Sutton Benger have typically thatched homes. The eastern edge of the Vale is more pronounced, with a steep and high hill forming a ridge running from Wootton Bassett in the north to close to Calne in the south. This ridge top provides the location for RAF Lyneham, the home until 2011 of the RAF's Hercules transport planes. It takes its name from the village of Dauntsey in the centre of the Vale.

Dauntsey is a small village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. It gives its name to the Dauntsey Vale in which it lies and takes its name from Saxon for Dantes- eig, or Dante's island. It is set on slightly higher ground in the flood plain of the upper Bristol Avon. Today, the parish is split by the M4 motorway, with a chain of historic smaller settlements spread either side. Dauntsey Green is north of the motorway, along with Dauntsey Church at the entrance to Dauntsey Park; to the south are Greenman's Lane, Sodom and Dauntsey Lock. Dauntsey Lock is on the former Wilts and Berks Canal (presently being restored), the course of which runs alongside the Bristol-London mainline railway.